Don't come back without donuts...

Happy Hump Day everyone!!! I have two very special birthday shout outs before I finish my surgery story!

First things first: Happy birthday to my amazing grandma, Honey Ruth!!! I love you so much and hope you are having the best birthday ever!!! 

Honey Ruth is a breast cancer survivor and my motivation to fight back against cancer! She had breast cancer at 37 and today is her 80th birthday! If you look up 'warrior' in the dictionary, there is a picture of her next to the definition. 

Secondly: Today is a very special day, as two of my favorite people, Zack and Julie, welcomed this little princess, Kenzley Harper Hardenbergh, into the world!! 

Zack and Julie: You are going to be the most incredible parents and I cannot wait to watch your perfect little ray of sunshine grow<3 

Real quick: I just wanted to say sorry I missed another blog! Yesterday, I went on my first adventure out since my surgery and it wore me out! All I did was go to the doctor and Walgreen's, but I literally have no energy right now! It's annoying!

Now, back to my surgery... The first thing I remember about waking up is having one of those oxygen things on that blows air up your nose and my nose being incredibly itchy! I also remember there being a bunch of people standing around me, asking all kinds of questions, and me thinking 'Where in the world am I?'

There are not many things that I remember from the recovery room because I was extremely medicated, duh. One of the things that I do remember is being nauseated and the nurses taking those little alcohol wipes and putting them on my oxygen tube right by my nose. Gross. Apparently, that helps some people to not be nauseated after surgery, but in my case it did the exact opposite. The nurses kept putting those things on my oxygen line and every time I took it off and threw it on the floor. I wont get into any details, but in my case, those alcohol wipes did not prevent me from vomiting. 

I ended up being in recovery for more than 6 hours because my blood pressure was extremely low. At one point my diastolic number or bottom number was in the 20's. What is a diastolic number? It's the bottom number in your blood pressure reading, which is also the lower of the two numbers, that measures the pressure in the arteries between heartbeats (when the heart muscle is resting between beats and refilling with blood). The nurses told me I had been in recovery for record time, which is when they gave me those monkey stuffed animals as a prize. 

Since I spent an extended period of time in recovery, the nurses were nice enough to bend the rules a little for me so that my parents could come see me, which was awesome! Eventually, they did send my parents home! Before they left, I kindly told my mom that she 'better not come back without donuts.' I had to drive past a Krispy Kreme with 'Hot Now' donuts on my way in when I couldn't eat or drink anything, so I obviously woke up thinking about donuts. 

After recovery, my memories of the hospital are pretty foggy. I was supposed to get out on Friday, but because I could not keep any food in my system and I had low blood pressure, I ended up staying until Sunday. In the end, I am glad I stayed those extra days because the nursing staff was so helpful! I wouldn't have gotten through those first couple of days without the help of my family, friends, and those awesome nurses at Florida Hospital! 

One of the most inconvenient things about this surgery: Not being able to use my arms! Wait... Why can't you use your arms? Part of my surgery took lymph nodes out my armpits. I had 3 taken out of the left side and 2 taken out of the right side to be tested for cancer. The incisions can easily open, so I can't use my arms to avoid that agony. By can't use my arms I mean I can bend them but not lift them above my head or away from my body, and can't lift anything that weighs more than a coke can. In case you're wondering, here are a couple things that I didn't realized I wouldn't be able to do without the use of my arms: Get out of bed, get the 'fly-away' hairs out of my face, rub my eyes, move my pillow myself to try to get comfortable, go to the bathroom, or even put a cup of water up to my mouth to drink it!  

Other than that, the only thing about the hospital I strongly remember is how swollen you can get from all of the fluids they are pumping into you! This is easy for me to remember because I am still swollen. It's not fun. Luckily, it has gone down a bunch but in the beginning I couldn't bend my fingers because they were so fat and my ankles even had rolls. Cute, I know. So if you're in the hospital, don't freak out and think 'How'd I get so fat all the sudden?!'... it takes time but it will go away! I am still waiting...

I am so glad to have that part of this journey behind me! Were there times when I wished I wasn't in this situation? Absolutely! Is it weird to see yourself with no boobs? Yup... so I just try not to look! ((Yes, I did say that I was going to have small boobs when I woke up but due to complications with my surgery, they were able to put the expanders in, but no fluid in them.)) I keep reminding myself that the hard part is over and it is only up hill from here! 

If you are going through something similar, pillow pets come in handy on car rides! 

I guess technically it can just be a pillow and not a pillow pet, but pillow pets are more fun! Thank goodness for my mom thinking outside the box because I wouldn't have even realized that the seat belt going across my chest was going to hurt until I got into the car that day. Putting a pillow between your chest and the seat belt makes car rides much easier!

The most creative gift award goes to the Kerr Family, aka my Chapel Hill Family, for this gem:

It is so appropriate that my best friend, Kaitlyn, and her awesome parents, James and Jennifer, sent me a gift basket with unique beers for motivation to get well soon! Love and miss you guys very much and can't wait to drink a beer with y'all soon enough! 

My song of the day is Billy Currington- Pretty good at drinkin' beer because I cannot wait to be off all these medications and crack one of those babies open! It is also the song of the day because country music makes me feel like I am back in North Carolina and sure does put a smile on my face! 

Disclaimer: My kidneys were jealous that my chest was getting all of the attention so I am currently passing a kidney stone. Yes, I have passed one before and yes, it sucks. If you happen to write to me in the next day or so and I don't answer it's because I am trying to heal from my surgery and pass this stupid stone! 

Catch everyone tomorrow, hopefully <3

PS: There is a poll on the right of my blog posts, do it! I am interested to see how many of you have been tested for the BRCA gene mutation or are planning on getting tested! Don't worry, its anonymous.